Blog → The Research on Presence of Key Ukrainian Parties in Press and Online Media

We have analyzed a media profile in printed press and online media for seven key Ukrainian parties: Party of Regions, All-Ukrainian Union Fatherland (United Opposition), Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform Vitaliy Klychko, Communist Party of Ukraine, Party Ukraine – Forward!, People's Union "Our Ukraine", All-Ukrainian Union "Freedom". The research period is 1 August – 10 October 2012. The most frequently mentioned one in printed press is the Party of Regions with 2024 publications. The second place is taken by the All-Ukrainian Union Fatherland (United Opposition), which was mentioned in 959 articles. In aggregate, the number of mentions of the opposition parties is 3216.

The leader in online news by the number of mentions with a significant margin is also the Party of Regions with 44,042 articles, with its share of the media presence in the general data (no duplicates) on 7 parties being 45%. The total volume of mentions of the opposition parties including the Communist Party of Ukraine is 55% of the general data or 53,692 publications without duplicates.

The Party of Regions is being most frequently specified in negative context as compared to its political opponents. 5% of positive mentions and 24% of negative mentions are fixed in general data.

According to the study it can be concluded that the Party of Regions is being most frequently specified in negative context as compared to its political opponents. 5% of positive mentions and 24% of negative mentions are fixed in general data. For the All-Ukrainian Union Fatherland (United Opposition) a share of positive and negative mentions is 7% and 8% respectively. Moreover, the Party of Regions is mentioned more often than their opponents in the context of punctuated criticism of journalists, experts, representatives of other political forces - 19% of general mentions, while the indicator of accentuated criticism against the All-Ukrainian Union Fatherland (United Opposition) is 7%.

The distribution of sentiment in the statements of speakers from the Party of Regions and the All-Ukrainian Union Fatherland (United Opposition) is demonstrative. A key context of the statements from the Party of Regions was achievements and initiatives of the party, the government - 125 positive references. The discourse of the All-Ukrainian Union Fatherland (United Opposition) speakers is mostly built on criticizing actions of the Party of Regions and its members - 172 mentions. At the same time, the Party of Regions spoke negatively about the All-Ukrainian Union Fatherland (United Opposition) in 49 comments.